South County Closure of Welfare Facility

Your article on welfare (For Poor, Closure of South County Welfare Office Spells Hardship, Sept. 29) enrages me and my colleagues! We are the hard-working stiffs caught in the crunch, losing money, working long hours and watching our standard of living decrease. We feel that the welfare population of Orange County should move to San Bernardino. We bust our butts to live here, and we do not need to hear that the non-working segment of Orange County is upset because they have troubles getting their free handouts. If these people are going to be so irresponsible as to have children and not be able to support them, why should we have to hear of it, and (hear of) material that makes it sound like the end of the world?

We would all love to have free money and not have the stress, work long hours and plan children because of economics. In my family, we would love to have more kids, but I cannot afford it. I drive 100 miles a day to work because I cannot afford to live in our county right now. I live in Riverside.

We need more articles about the people, such as apartment owners, affected by the drug issue, or the high rate of drug use in our welfare system, or the effect of the tax laws on the disappearing middle-class, or the sacrifices that regular working people make every day just to survive--and (fewer) articles on the blight of the poor. We are all going to be poor if any more gets dumped on the workers who are paying for all these social services.

LUTHER GRIBBLE

Idyllwild